Choices

Choice five: Sorting hat

Choices, that's all my life is. I was not made for anything else and sometimes that's depressing. So very, very depressing.

Imagine what it would be like to be hundreds of years old and know you're only destined for one thing, to tell people where they belong.

I'm a hat and sometimes I wish I had been left to only be a hat. I hate having to choose the future for the children, but Gryffindor needed me to do it. And so I do it.

Yes that's right, I'm Hogwarts' Sorting hat and I do just that. I've sat on the heads of thousands of people and read their minds.

Most of the time I don't mind it but every once and a while I read the mind of someone who will stand out. Can you imagine knowing that this eleven year old that is waiting to find out in which house they belong is going to change the world.

Don't you believe me, well its true; I can tell if somebody is going to be great or terrible. I can tell if they'll help others or try to destroy them. It's amazing what has been put into the mind of an eleven year old.

When I sorted Albus Dumbledore I spent ages trying to decide. He is so very smart a great choice for Ravenclaw but there was a brave streak in him that meant that he belonged in Gryffindor. I knew that he was going to be important, be a hero in the world. I read that he was going to be the one to defeat Grindelwald and help in the defeat of another wizard on two separate occasions.

Then there was another young man by the name of Tom Riddle. From the moment I touched his head I knew he was going to do great things. Terrible but great. There was no choice where he would belong because although he had the brains that many from Ravenclaw would kill for, he was the heir of another founder; the last in the line of Slytherin.

The thing that is worse than knowing the future of students is knowing that I am playing a part in that future. I knew I had to place Dumbledore in Gryffindor so that he could gain the courage to defeat Grindelwald like I knew Riddle had to be a Slytherin. But some are more difficult.

Take tonight as a great example it is the 1st September 1971 and I've just finished sorting the first years and I've been placed back in the office where I live. I always spend this time reflecting on what I have chosen for the young ones.

I know that those in Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Hufflepuff are right for their houses although I think that I've placed in Gryffindor those that maybe I shouldn't have. They are a bunch that could have fitted into all the other houses but a choice I had to make.

There was a girl among the first years named Lily Evans. I knew straight away that she is the first in her family to experience magic; I knew she was nervous, as she doesn't yet know the way of our world.

But the young lady is smart and she'll go far I can see that even now in my mind I still see it. She was perfect for Ravenclaw; everything they seek in a student. But she has a streak that she is yet to find. This young lady has bravery that a warrior would be jealous of.

She will need the bravery, though she has a long path to tread. I knew that she has had pain in her past that she has in fact lost both of her parents and has a new set. I saw the pain that her sister has caused her the last few weeks.

But even more I saw her future, she has more pain to come. I saw her death before my eyes how young she still looked. I felt her pain her fear and yet I know love will rule her life until then.

In the same house I placed a boy I know will be part of her future, the man she will learn to love. James Potter, now he is a Gryffindor in every sense of the word. His family has been for seven generations.

He is brave, I see that straight away; there's no way he could belong anywhere else, although the brain he has will challenge Miss Evans and will be a source of many arguments between the pair. But like the young lady pain is to come.

He will be sought out and death is the only path for him, but what will hurt him more is knowing that one he trusts is a traitor will have lead death to his door. His final acts will be those of a true Gryffindor and his legacy will live on.

The next is another who will be important in the lives of the two before. A young boy by the name of Sirius Black. Now he is different to all other Blacks I have seen in the last ten years, and the last of his family to show this trait was a young Andromeda Black.

He shows respect and courage and a dislike for the family traditions. I could not place him into Slytherin he is too different but his courage and loyalty are unquestionable. He too will need the bravery of a Gryffindor for he will go against all of his kin.

He is to be hunted down and attempts on his life will become a normal thing for him. However what I saw is more painful than his two future friends. He will not die like them young, but sent to Azkaban where he will rot before his escape and ultimately death.

Then there was a strange one, to place a werewolf among the group; he has bravery that is unquestionable. He has faced more than any of the others something he has learnt to live with, his place was sealed although again Ravenclaw would have been a decent choice.

What haunts me about him is the fact that he already lives with pain but he will have to learn to live without the support he will get use to. He will lose everyone and yet still live on he will have to deal with the pain of being left behind.

The last that I will tell you about seems weak to the face but inside him there is a cunning man waiting to show himself. Yet that comes later mostly you will see the bravery that he will show standing up to those that frighten him.

He will belong and then quickly he will turn leading to the death of Miss Evans and Mr. Potter and the imprisonment of Mr. Black. Then he will disappear to live a hidden life until he can again try to destroy the legacy that will be Mr. Potter and Miss Evans.

I know that by placing Peter Pettigrew in another house I would save Mr. Potter and Miss Evans from the early grave, would save Mr. Black from Azkaban and Mr. Lupin from a life of solitude. But then that one change could destroy the world as they will all working together, although unbeknown shape the future for those to come.

So do you think you could cope with this decision knowing that one wrong choice and you could destroy the world. I will allow the troubles of these young people just so that in the long run we will survive.

I have one choice to and that is to place the young children into their houses and yet that one choice makes a difference to all. As I said choices, that's all my life is. I was not made for anything else and sometimes that's depressing.

First a shout out to the lovely Annie for beta-ing this story, couldn't do it without you hun.

Annie: Yes 62 chapters but I've only written 10 chapters so far so lots more to go I should really write more but I'm finishing year 3 of FFMN first I only have a few more chapters to write for that one.

Jessie: Thanks for reading; I hope you'll be updating your story soon

Well that's all I have to say except enjoy and I'll post the next one hopefully at the end of the week or whenever Annie sends it back 8)

Kris